[4e] drothgery's arcane game - Clash of Steel

Kelistin had a lot to recommend it as the place for adventurers between quests to stay. A large city where nearly anything for sale could be bought and sold, an extensive presence by House Cannith's artificers who could custom craft most that was not easily at hand, a central point for all of House Orien and House Lyrandar's resources to travel anywhere on this world, and the portals surrounding the city for when travel beyond that was necessary.
It was also the capital of the Hyellic Empire. Which meant than since Silas had been the one to receive the odd message, he had discussed it with the Imperial Surveillance Corps.

Originally Posted by note

To the brave and honorable company of adventurers
from the Lady Stella Daybringer, countess of Barrinsgate, greetings.

As a councilor of Barrinsgate’s Circle of Peers, I have the responsibility for security in this frontier city. In recent weeks, the city watch has come under increasingly violent attacks, and crime on the whole has increased. These assaults seem calculated to weaken both the rule of law in Barrinsgate and my own authority on the council.

Word of your bold exploits has come to my ears. I am in need of proven investigators to act as my agents in this matter. I invite you to meet with me in private to discuss this assignment and negotiate terms of employment. I assure you that you will be paid most handsomely for your efforts.

This matter is of the utmost urgency. My messenger has been instructed to await a response. In the name of peace, I trust that you will accept this invitation.

"I don't know what to make of it, either." The eladrin said. Silas had been giving his reports to Marloes Valleau for years, when he had the time to make them in person."Barrinsgate. On the northern edge of our territory in Andarvic. The Empire confirmed their self-granted titles to help smooth over the annexation, but it's still not exactly civilized country there. For all they wanted to bring in the Empire, it's nearly certain at least some of the Circle is involved in smuggling. We still don't know as much about them as I'd like. If you can convince your friends to go for it, the Corps would appreciate it." She continued.

OOC:

stonegod, feel free to have your character ask her any questions. Anyone else, feel free to set up a scenario to talk among yourselves or describe what you're doing between adventures in the capital.

No matter how many times Soril came to Kelistin the city always had something new for him. His last visit the found an artificer that was very persistent in trying to buy his blades of chaos. The man was convinced he had to have it, and it wasn't until Soril had killed two of the man's "acquisition ssociates" that the artificer finally relented. The time before that he bought and drank a bottle of elven wine that left him hallucinating for three days straight. It might not always be safe, but the city was rarely boring.

"Could do with a little bit of boredom this time." Soril muttered to himself and shook his head at the street vendor trying to sell him some questionable looking potions. He'd come to the city looking to relax, take some time off for awhile. The last few letters from home had been increasingly troublesome and he wasn't sure yet how to respond. On the other hand, I could use a good distraction right now.

Picking his way across the crowded street Soril stepped through the doorway of the Three Note Inn, feeling the coolness of the shade inside ripple across his scales. He shivered for a moment and then kept walking over to the bar. The bartender looked up and recognized him, set down the glass he was cleaning and pulled down a bottle of whiskey from the top shelf. "Good afternoon, Master Asyax." He poured two fingers into a dark glass and set it next to the bottle on the bar, a smile forming in the corner of his mouth. "May I hope that Silas will be joining you later? It's been some time since we've seen him last."

Soril nodded, picked up the whiskey glass and banged it lightly on the bartop before knocking it back in a single go. Tapping one taloned finger on the bartop he said "No need to play games with me Jul...you probably knew he was coming to Kelistin before I did." He took up the glass and drank it, sipping it this time and looking out at the other patrons in the bar. Even if there wasn't someone playing there was usually a few hangerons that stuck around in hopes one of their favorites would stop by. "I've been far afield since my last drink here Jul." He smiled at the bartender over the rim of his glass. "I'll trade you two truths for the rest of the bottle. Deal?"

Althaea sits at a table to the side of the bar, sipping at a glass of elven wine. Passable, she supposed. Of course, her standards were a bit high. Her time living as a noble had somewhat dulled her ability to take pleasure in the average.

Finishing off the glass, the eladrin contemplates her reasons for being in this city again. An unknown patron sending off for adventurers on an as of yet unknown quest. By now, one would think she'd have gotten used to all these unknowns, but they still made her curious. She'd been absent from the group for a little while, handling a family dispute back in the Feywild. Lady Stella Daybringer... I haven't heard that name before. She was no strange to the old blood of the region, and tried to keep abreast of developing new money, but it was possible that a house or a name had slipped past her attention at some point. At the very least, the unknown kept things interesting. Still, I've a feeling that boring won't be on the itinerary soon enough.

She offers Soril a rare smile as he enters, picking herself up and walking towards the counter as she does. "Jul, another glass when you and Mr. Asyax are done talking, if you would," the noble intones as she sets the glass down and puts a few coins on the counter. Althaea's ice blue eyes peer out from under her faded gold hair at the dragonborn. It was nice to see a familiar face. "Good to be working with you again, Soril," she states candidly as she lowers herself into a seat.

Vanri glanced up at the gates of the city as he entered. Although humanoid the Genasi was a creature of the desert and even though he had spent time in civilized land over his adventuring career he was still far from comfortable in the crowds of the city.

The Djinn's Soothsayers had been remarkably cryptic in their prophecies and it had taken some time to work out that the Djinn needed an agent in this infernal city to have a hand diverting the doom they had foreseen. Vanri silently cursed his luck at being the one chosen.

If there was anyone who would know any rumours of trouble brewing it would be a bard, so Vanri decided to head through to The Threenote Inn to see if Silas was in town.

Peering through the door Vanri noted Althaea and Soril in conversation and paused, frowning slightly. The fates seemed to be conspiring to bring his old companions back together, this could only mean the trouble was worse than he suspected. Heading across to their table he called out a greeting "Althaea, Soril, the winds blow favorably on us this day! I trust you have had good journeys since last we met?"

The patrons in Soril's favored bar hear a shrill bird cry as a tiny but brilliant blue avian enters through an open overhead window...

It lands next to Soril, Althea and Vanri and changes back to Teclis, a tall half-elf wearing a robe in a mix of different shades of blue and a cloak, his ever present glasses on his sharp nose. He looks at the others with his brilliant blue eyes and holds one hand up in greetings, the other never letting go of his staff, which is topped by a crystal shard."Greetings, my friends. Looks like I'm coming late, despite the saying that flying is the fastest way to travel."
He looks at the barkeeper: "I will take a Blue goblin with ice. ...

But what happened to you, my friends? I come just from a boring meeting in the airship harbor. Anyone bearing good news?"

As two more familiar faces enter the inn, Althaea stands up and greets them both with a nod and a grin. Despite her relatively subdues response, she's quite clearly glad to see them. "Vanri and Teclis as well. I had a feeling that if I came here and waited, I'd run into you all," she states, her voice still remaining professional and detached, more as a matter of habit than anything else. "It's good to see you both again. Will Soril and Tatterdemalion be arriving as well?" The eladrin accepts her glass when it comes and sets it to the side, before addressing Teclis.

"I suppose I've some good news. The conflict back in Celandria's been resolved," she states, referring to her city of birth in the feywild, "Apparently, my beloved brother," she puts a curious emphasis on the word 'beloved,' "challenged one of the mages of House Evenwind to a duel. It took a couple weeks of negation to clear things up." The eladrin takes a sip of her drink. "I'm certain he could have held his own, but it's best not to start a blood feud. Not between the fey nobility." she states, recalling her studies of the last major familial conflict that her city had experienced. It ended quite a few decades ago; it started quite a few centuries ago.

"What of the rest of you? Any exciting tales from the past few months that I missed?"

"Althaea! Vanri!" Soril says, a wide smile on his face. "Come in, sit down. Drink." He says and raises his glasses again, to them this time and empties it. Setting it down on the counter he pushes it away, nodding to Jul. "That's all for now. I've business to attend."

Turning towards his companions Soril watches as Teclis flies in and transforms. "Afternoon Teclis...I expect Silas will be here eventually. Haven't seen the little one in quite some time." Soril pauses. "Well, the other little one." He shakes his head at Althaea's remarks of her brother. "If the fey were anything like my brothers, he would not have weeks to quit his claim. Maybe this is a good thing."

He sighs and leans back in the high backed chair. "Things back home are...complicated, at the moment." He waves his hand. "Not the right time to speak of such things, though I may borrow your ear later." He says to Althaea,

Silas crossed his arms and stroked his chin, a position the handsome gnome always took when thinking or planning. His brow furrowed. Do we know anything about this... Lady Daybringer? Her relative power or relationship with others in the Circle? Or do we know of any others in Avardic that may be using this little place as a means against us? Any intel, even old, is better than none. Silas had read about Avardic and Barrinsgate in Tomas Telington's Travels obviously (the 3rd ed, not the 4th; the 3rd had a much better editor who was familiar with the original dwarven; not that prat editor of the 4th who only had a cursory knowledge), but it was dated. No, he needed to remember something more recent...

no dwarves on this world; history check isn't all that useful at this time

"Not very much." She said. "There's some evidence she might be the power behind the scenes in the city, but the Surveillance Corps' presense in Andarvic has alwas been concentrated in Novaric. After all, the people who used to run things in Novaric before we moved in seemed to think Imperial-flagged trade ships were fair game for piracy. And the Circle seemed happy to help us get rid of their rivals in some... other... enterprises. I'm sure in another century or so the creeping tide of Imperial bureaucracy will fill in that kind of information, but we don't have it now.

"As to the other city-states in Andarvic? I suppose it's possible, but since we annexed the peninsula they've mostly tried to avoid Imperial notice. They seem to have gotten the impession that if they caused trobule they could be next. The seal matches the arcane mark on file, and while that is possible to fake, it is rather difficult.

"I don't think you'll learn much more without taking a look for yourself. House Orien has a teleportation circle in Novaric; it's a few days ride from there to Barrinsgate."

"What of the rest of you? Any exciting tales from the past few months that I missed?"

Teclis furrows his brows and the smell of ozone intesifies around him."At least each of you knows his or her family. I was traveling again, searching for signs of my past, both through the Chaos and the Wild, but I didn't find anything conclusive."
He raises his glass: "On friendship... because you can choose friends, but not family "